


Secrets of a Songstress

by Cordelia Clay (HGalbertson)



Series: The Adventures of the Starling and Nightingale Caravan [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen, No Romance, No Sex, No Smut, Original Character(s), Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 14:17:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15708927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HGalbertson/pseuds/Cordelia%20Clay
Summary: Another piece to a large puzzle behind the Starling and Nightingale Dancers and Songstresses performance group, the group that formed from the remaining members of the Moondrop and Fletching Traveling Carnival of Curiosities. A moment of the new dynamic with one rosy, new character, roughly a few years before the events of the previous "chapter." These are more like vignettes, and for now, they won't be posted in chronological order.





	Secrets of a Songstress

“By the gods, did you see how the big one was gauking?” Mona cringed. She did so even in the best of her moods.

“And how he spoke to Corinna?” Yuli, Mona’s twin sister, commiserated in return. “What kind of a business did he think this was?”

“It is an unfortunate plight of performers that common folk assume us simultaneously artists and prostitutes,” Corinna said in a tired drawl. She followed the two gossiping halfling women through the heavy curtain of the Starling and Nightingale tent, patting her neck and brow with a heavy cloth. “That’s why I’m here to remind them that they must find such other services elsewhere–with pointed emphasis when needed.”

Toya chuckled, sweaty golden hair sticking to her broad dwarven head. “The look on his face after you spoke with him–I felt like we were being upstaged!”

“By me or the fool?” Corinna asked half-heartedly. “I hope it was me, I’m much prettier.”

Bo the Breaker’s laugh rang low as he step through the tent opening, his head nearly scraping the ceiling. “I don’t know, miss, his ugly face whimpering as he ran off will be hard to forget.”

“Well.” Corinna sighed.“I’m still glad to have saved us the trouble of another brawl.”

“And I do thank you for that,” said Ornna as she pushed back the curtain. Sweat was pooling on her dark skin, and her fiery red hair had gone frizzy from the humidity. “I’ll remind you all that the last fight got us chased out of town. Luckily we’d already gotten paid.”

Toya, who had laid down on a large cushion, sat up, her brow furrowed. She opened her mouth to speak before shutting it again quickly. Corinna couldn’t discern whether it was curiosity or confusion plastered on the young dwarf’s face.

“What, love?” said said, rubbing her forehead. “C'mon, out with it.”

Toya kicked her lips and looked the tiefling woman in the eye, suspicion in her wrinkled forehead.

“What did you say to him?” Toya asked after a few quick breaths.

Corinna forced her lungs to breathe evenly and her face to stay calm. A long silence settled into the tent with the tired performers.

“What he needed to hear.” Corinna broke the quiet with a shrug.

“That’s not an answer,” replied Toya.

“Sure it is,” said Corinna.

Toya glared at the pink-skinned, raven-haired, golden-eyed tiefling who had draped herself nonchalantly over a deep maroon satee.

“You and your way with words,” Toya said. “You’re a fabulous writer, but with your cryptics we’ll never learn anything about you at this rate.”

“Good.” Corinna laughed in accomplishment. “I am rather attached to my air of mystery.”

At this point the rest of the tent inhabitants had turned to look Corinna over. The night air had turned cold, and their sweat was drying as a few beads till rolled down their faces, necks, and chests.

Bo was the first to look away–an attempt to detract from the conversation. Mona, nonetheless, weighed in.

“Still,” she said, “what could leave a mountain of a man like that, scars and all, shaking in his boots?”

Ornna, seeing Bo’s disengagement, stood and walked to the water basin in the corner of the room.

“Everyone has something they’re afraid of, no? Who cares what the sniveling brute had to fear?”

“But how’d you do it?” Yuli asked, leaning in towards Corinna. “How’d you get him to leave?”

Corinna looked at the young halfling woman who was still half-way through taking off her serpentine costume. There was awe in her face and a slight sheen of hope in her eyes. For a moment Corrina’s heart sunk, and she considered telling all these young girls just what she’d done… the dark thing she’d done. But she’d sworn never to unleash such a curse upon anyone else.

Raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips, Corinna replied: “I just told him that he was no longer welcome–told him to leave, and if he returned, I’d have Bo tell him again in a language he might better understand.”

Bo looked puzzled. “I doubt he’d understand Orcish, but it does tend to spook people.”

“No, Bo, the language of your fists. I told him that you would beat him.”

“Oh… Yeah.” Bo’s look of confusion turned into a grin, his lips stretching giddily over his tusks. “I would.”

At this, Corinna chuckled, and soon the whole tent erupted in laughter. Corinna thanked the Everlight for giving her the chance to dissipate the tension and maintain her facade. She’d made a promise to the Lady of Redemption a long time ago. A promise that she would never teach others what she had been–the cruelty or the skills, the ruthless disregard for people’s minds and lives. Nonetheless, she would keep these people safe, whatever the cost, with every resource and skill she had. It was always the outliers and misfits who had needed her the most. And she had come to rely on these ones more than any others she had encountered before.


End file.
